Readers may not be aware that prostitution is legal and
regulated in 13 of Mexico’s 31 states. A study by
anthropologist Patty Kelly sheds light on one such system:
the Galactic Zone outside Tuxtla in the state of Chiapas. Given
the small scale of the Zone and Tuxtla’s population of half a
million, there remains plenty of illegal prostitution in the
area.

Moreover, some of the Galactic Zone’s regulations are obtrusive,
such as the mandatory health card that includes the worker’s
name, photo, and health status and must be renewed every three
months (workers are routinely tested for syphilis and HIV).

Yet the Zone’s form of legal prostitution also has some benefits.
First, the Zone appears to have broad popular support. In Tuxtla,
“prostitution is generally accepted (and sometimes valued)
as long as it is confined and invisible,” which is precisely what
the Galactic Zone accomplishes.

Second, Zone workers have a “great deal of freedom and exercise
control over their work.”

They alone decide when to work and for how long, who they will
serve, and their rates; they come and go as they please; and many
take extended leaves to visit family in other parts of Mexico.
Almost all of the 140 women working in the Zone are independent,
free of pimps.

Third, while prostitution is hardly lucrative for Zone workers,
on a good day the women can earn as much as ten times the daily
minimum wage in Chiapas. It is not survival sex: the workers are
able to buy consumer goods that they otherwise could not afford,
such as nice clothing, cellphones, jewelry, and items for their
children.

Fourth, working in this arena helps to bolster the women’s sense
of control over their lives and their self-esteem. Many began
working in the Zone to support their children after escaping an
unhappy, abusive, or violent relationship with a husband. The
Zone allowed them to break free of dependency on their husbands
and, more generally, to “find in prostitution a life better than
the one they might have had.”

There are unpleasant aspects of this highly controlled type of
prostitution, but the net effect of working in the Galactic Zone
is positive for the women: control over working conditions, lack
of coercion, economic advancement, and enhanced self-esteem.

One of the few comparative analyses of legal and illegal
prostitution is anthropologist Yasmina Katsulis’s study of
Tijuana, Mexico. Katsulis interviewed and observed workers in
both spheres: those registered with the authorities, subjected to
compulsory health exams, and holding a work card and
those who had not registered. (Bars employing sex workers must be
licensed and are subject to fines if their workers are not
registered, but this does not apply to massage parlors, private
brothels, dance halls, or escort services.)

Individuals and sexually oriented establishments in Tijuana are
visited periodically by government inspectors. About a thousand
prostitutes are working legally at any given time, along
with a larger number of illegals.

Although the registration and mandatory health checks may seem
burdensome, Katsulis documents positive outcomes for those who
work legally, and these benefits are quite significant. A major
finding is that legal status, in itself, has diffuse effects on
the workers: providing social capital, empowerment, and a sense
of professionalism.

The legal workers have better working conditions and job
satisfaction, less fear about the nature of their work, and a
higher degree of sophistication and confidence. . . .
Registration and monthly checkups appear to encourage behaviors
that are protective of health as well as provide a barrier
against police harassment. Registration increases the sense of
legitimacy and community and is correlated with much lower levels
of depression and mental stress.

Moreover, the “social stigma attached to these [legal] work
settings is also lessened.” And legal work is safer than illegal
work, partly because of an improved relationship with the police,
who are now more prepared to intervene in disputes between
customers and workers: “for legal workers, the policing of
customers offers protection against customer violence.”

Illegal workers, by contrast, experience police harassment,
violence, fines, and incarceration; they have less stable social
support networks; and they are about twice as likely as the legal
workers to have been assaulted, robbed, or kidnapped.

Illegal prostitution thus remains problematic in Tijuana, and
Katsulis’s study serves as a reminder that legalization may
bypass many sex workers. The one unanswered question is why many
Tijuana workers opt out of the legal system, but we know from
research elsewhere that the reasons include fear of being
formally labeled a prostitute and the increased risk of being
discovered by friends and family members.

From "Legalizing Prostitution: From Illicit Vice to Lawful
Business" by Ronald Weitzer. Excerpted with permission from the
New York University
Press. Copyright 2012 by New York University.